U'slkwe
by Prairiefire
Summary: A little girl must grow up through a hard childhood knowing only hate and pain. When her savior comes she must learn trust and mercy. Her savior must learn to let go.


**Title:** U'sl-kwe

**Author:** Prairiefire

**Chapter:** 1/?

**Fandom:** Predator AU

**Rating: **NC-17-E

**Warnings:** Adult Situations, Violence, Death, Graphic Violence/Gore, Sexual Situations, Torture/Abuse

**Pairings:** Pred/Pred, Pred/Human

**Summary:** Phoenix is kidnapped as a young child by Bad Bloods, later she is rescued by the Elder Nan'rca'cha. This is the story of their life together.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Predator franchise or make any money from it since Fox beat me to it.

**Feedback:** Always appreciated. It's nice to know I have an audience

**

* * *

The Monsters **

The woman ran into the dark room out of breath and praying she had not been seen. She knew she would never be able to save herself; there was no place for her to hide. Still, she hoped there was a chance for her daughter as she pulled the still sleeping two-year-old out of her bed. Near panic the woman carried the sleepy child to the closet behind the door. It was the only place to hide the child.

The attack had come so fast that the colony's sentries had not been able to raise the alarm. When the alert finally sounded the creatures had moved through half the compound and the survivors were cut off from the hanger. At least, that was the last report from security before the comm-line went dead.

Now, with no hope of escape the mother desperately tried to hide her daughter. Phoenix looked up at her mother with wondering, scared eyes as she was buried under a pile of clothes. Hearing a sound in the hall the mother pressed her finger to her lips to make sure Phoenix knew to stay quiet and quickly closed the closet door leaving only a small crack. She frantically backpedaled and tried to hide herself under the small bunk. Undoubtedly the creatures would find her, but if she could provide a distraction that would save her daughter it was a risk that needed to be taken.

The mother was still backing under the bed when the door was flung open. She froze as two of the creatures walked in. The larger one stalked over to her and pulled her out by the back of the neck and let her dangle in its grip. It growled at her from behind the metal mask it wore. She knew this was her end. The second creature, a white one making a stark contrast to the two-toned green one holding the mother aloft, stalked up to its leader's side. It studied her body for a moment, scanning her up and down. Seemingly dissatisfied with what it saw it snarled and shook its head.

The leader dropped the mother in a heap at his feet. She looked back up at the creature as she backed away to press herself against the bunk. Jagged blades extended from its wrist with a snap causing her to jump. She consciously held the creature's gaze for fear of breaking it and looking over towards the closet. If they thought her the only occupant they may leave without further searching the room. With lightning speed the green creature struck out with the blades on its wrist.

Phoenix watched her mother's body slump to the floor. She stayed frozen when the monster turned around, even holding her breath so it couldn't hear her. Like the white one, the bigger one simply left the room. She stayed hidden, staring at her mother's body not being able to understand why her mommy was not coming back to get her now that the monsters were gone.

With a short attention span, Phoenix didn't wait long before she crawled out of her hiding place. The room remained dark with only the backsplash of one of the colony's floodlights streaming through a small window. Dragging her stuffed bear with her, Phoenix toddled over to her mother.

"Momma?" There was no answer to her call. She walked closer to her mother, standing beside her head not knowing what the sticky wet stuff she was standing in was.

"Momma, up." Phoenix pushed her mother's shoulder. "No play." When her mother didn't move she started to get scared. To her young perceptions the room grew darker and she huddled close to her mother. Pulling her mother's limp arm around her, Phoenix settled down next to her. The sticky mess on the floor was not enough to drive her away and into the dark unknown.

It was in the early hours of the false dawn when Phoenix found herself awakened. The two monsters from the night before were standing over her. The big green one held a knife in his hand that Phoenix stared at in terror. The green one pulled the knife back and was about to kill her when the white one clicked at its leader.

The clicking went on for a couple minutes before the green one back away and the white one stepped forward. It broke something under Phoenix's nose and her eyes soon were heavy. Before she fell asleep her last thought was that monsters weren't supposed to come out in the day.

XXXXX

Te'var'zan stopped short of killing the pup when Nain'de spoke up. They had found the useless thing sleeping in a pool of its mother's own _thwei_. He growled at the healer that had joined his pack.

"Don't kill it," Nain'de had said.

"Why the _pauk_ not," hissed Te'var'zan. "This area was supposed to be cleared of _oomans _already."

Growling back, Nain'de flashed a tusk and said, "We haven't found that many suitable _oomans_. This pack is mostly those too old for us. Or males."

"And this one is too young," Te'var'zan growled through the blood lust pumping through his veins. "What possible use could it be to us?"

"A control group, individual. It is young, mostly untainted. Some of my best work could be done on it."

Te'var'zan grunted and backed off. Seeing the leader's acquiescing Nain'de stepped forward with the tranquilizer and broke the capsule under her ugly nose. The pup slumped back against its dead mother and Nain'de picked it up and was about to sling it over his shoulder when Te'var'zan stopped him.

"I'll take it. Understand, you may work in it, but I own it."

"Yes Leader. This one looks barely older than an _ooman_ suckling. This young, it should be easy to train any way you desire."

A thoughtful hum escaped Te'var'zan, "Perhaps it may help Pa'dax with her problem then. She is still lactating and the collar is barely controlling her." He looked down at the pup in his hand. "You are sure it is female?"

"Yes, the _oomans_ are born with their reproductive organs intact, though I don't know if they function."

"Alright, Dtai'ku and the others have finished loading the supplies and other females. We have but to leave and trigger the bombs."

Nain'de nodded his acknowledgement without taking his green eyes off the unconscious pup. Conversation was sparse as the two yautja made their way back to their ship.

"I have never studied an _ooman_ pup as it's grown before," Nain'de mused as he and Te'var'zan watched the adult females being moved into the holding pen in the ship's cargo bay. There were only ten collected on this trip and half of them were still unconscious like the pup. Of those that were awake for the transfer, two fought futilely with their captors. Te'var'zan picked the smaller of the fighters for himself. Dtai'ku, he surmised would take the other.

Just as Te'var'zan thought the name, Dtai'ku appeared at his side. Waiting to be noticed he surveyed the captured females. He had been hoping there would be more so the other warriors would not have to fight over them, however he didn't really care. Te'var'zan, Nain'de and himself would take what they wanted as was their right as the upper echelon of the clan. Besides, it had always been the way of the yautja that the strongest males would get the females. The only difference would be that these females would not have a say in the matter, nor were they likely to last long enough to whelp.

Te'var'zan finally turned to give Dtai'ku his attention when the last of the females was secured. By now most were awake, and all were bloody somewhere, which had Dtai'ku visibly aroused. "What," Te'var'zan demanded.

"The ship is," Dtai'ku started. "What the _pauk_ is that?" He had finally noticed the pup at Te'var'zan's feet.

"Have you never seen an _ooman_ before," Nain'de trilled at Dtai'ku.

"Of course I have. I have more of their skulls on my wall than you, pale face," Dtai'ku hissed back. He then bent down and picked the tiny thing up by its arm studying its limp form. "I just have never seen anything this puny."

Te'var'zan grasped the child's neck and laid it over his shoulder, "That's because it is a pup. My pup." Both Dtai'ku and Nain'de howled with laughter before Te'var'zan realized the folly of what he just said. "I own it, it is mine," he growled low and menacingly at the two bemused yautja. Nain'de stopped laughing and started to walk away.

"I will log these females into the manifest and examine them once we arrive back," Nain'de said before he disappeared among the rest of the cargo.

Te'var'zan focused on Dtai'ku who still had a mandible raised in amusement but had managed to stop laughing. "You had something you wanted to tell me," he growled at his subordinate.

"Yes," Dtai'ku tried to control the mirth in his voice. "The ship is ready to launch on your command and the charges have been set."

"Good. We walk a fine path. I would not like for the Arbitrators to make a claim we left evidence of our existence behind. I will see to the launch in a few units.

Te'var'zan dismissed Dtai'ku with wave of his hand and watched him stalk over to the caged _oomans_ before leaving the bay with his new _ooman_. Spending so much time thinking of females made him long for the feel of his rod planted inside one being milked for his seed like only a yautja female could. It was unfortunate that he would have to wait until one of the female slaves went into heat.

Arriving back at his private quarters Te'var'zan dropped Phoenix by the wall. He tied a cord around her neck then attached the other end securely to one of the wall pikes that would normally display a trophy skull. He left her there still unconscious to oversee the launch of the ship and the destruction of the _ooman_ colony.

It was several hours later when Te'var'zan get back to his quarters. He found Phoenix awake but was not in the mood to deal with her. He knew sooner or later he would have to feed her, but that was secondary to his need for rest.

XXXXX

Phoenix woke up to an empty room and a leash hooking her to the wall. She didn't know where she was and she hurt. She wanted to cry but was too scared that it would make one of the monsters come back. She curled herself up and waited hoping her mommy or daddy would come find her.

It had not been long after waking that the green monster came into the room. It didn't come over to her; it just looked at her and walked over to the bed to lie down. Phoenix had been scared of it before when it had a metal face. Now it had four pinchers around its mouth with sharp teeth and spikes all over its face, just like something the big kids would tell her about. She couldn't stop herself from sobbing quietly on the floor.

XXXXX

Te'var'zan listened to the pup snuffle for a while before turning on his side with his back to it and went to sleep. It was probably just hungry; he would feed it when he got up. That would be a lesson for it to learn. It would get fed when he chose to feed it.


End file.
